Shelena's Visit

Welcome to Korea!

Sudden decision and my friend came to visit me.  Shelena had some time off and decided to come to Korea and stay with me and see Korea!  I was super excited because I have not had any friends come visit me; only family.  So she arrived on a  Monday and she went right out on her own and toured Seoul.  She went off on her own for a few days and then she came to school one day.  Once the weekend hit I was finally ab;e to join her.  Here is school!

She came by for a little bit to school to meet the kids and get some cute pics of what I do everyday!

Dinner at the lamb place!

We decided on a DMZ tour for Saturday which Justine joined us and it was a long, busy day.  We had to meet the tour bus at 7 am so as you can see from the first pic we were a bit tired.  We did the same tour I had done before and then added on the JSA which is where you got to go to the real border and stand in North Korea!

We were not the only tired ones.  The guy behind us was fast asleep and snoring quite loudly!

At Dorasan Station where the next stop is in North Korea so South Korea keeps hoping it can be opened one day!

Sunny day but absolutely freezing!

Looking into North Korea!

Justine always wanting to be tall!

Hello North Korea!

Imjingak river.  My illegal picture but it is so pretty!

Lunch time.

Next we went to the JSA (Joint Security Area) and this is where we were at the actual border and the soldiers you see are ROK soldiers.  They were only here this day to protect us from North Korea which is about 30 feet in front of them.  Two of the soldiers are half behind the building and that is so they can get out of the line of fire quickly. 

 

All these buildings are across the border so when in the building you can step into North Korea!

The curb is the border.

To distinguish the border they have all those white posts.  Back in the 70's the soldiers from both sides were allowed to walk freely in this whole area but then the South Korean's and a couple American soldiers were cutting down a tree to improve visibility and the North Korean's killed the two American soldiers with an ax so they made the border and no one is allowed to cross.

The North Korean building we were looking at and the one soldier is watching us all very carefully with his big binoculars.

We got to go in one of the buildings and here we got to stand kind of close to a ROK soldier.  I always think what they must think of us, "What ridiculous people for paying to come see this!!"  If you got to close to them they would nudge you away from them.

Actually in North Korea!

Here is the memorial for the two American's who were killed when cutting this tree down.  They call is the Ax Murder Incident of 1976.

The Bridge of No Return.  They put the POW's here after the cease fire and let them choose what side they want to go home too and once they picked they could not return to the other side.

Finally back in Seoul and here is the cool building in City Hall area.

Stopped for some coffee to warm up and recover a bit form the long, long day!

Lotte Hotel looking beautiful as always!!

Next day I had to of course take Shelena to the Pet Cafe!

I love love love this place!  This bulldog is always so much fun!

On the way to Insa-dong there were these random cats who were really cute so of course I had to take a picture!

Next onto Insa-dong for some shopping and shopping we did!

Crazy function of my camera I like to play with!

I had a great time with Shelena and I love showing Korea to people.  I just love living here so much and so many things are going on and so cheap.  I was very happy a friend finally came to visit me and now waiting for my next friend to come and Emily will be here on Feb. 8!!